Norwich City have revealed a modernised club crest, bringing the traditional canary, castle and lion design up to modern standards.

Produced as part of a 'brand evolution project' that featured an in-depth consultation process during recent years, the renewed club crest will be used from June 17, 2022 and will feature on City kits for next season.

The views of supporters of all ages were sought externally, with 5,000 supporters responding to a questionnaire, as well as internally from academy players through to captain Grant Hanley, striker Teemu Pukki and joint majority shareholders Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones.

Announcing the change, an official statement explains: “The club has recently undergone a review of its brand, which confirmed a number of technical challenges and accessibility issues centred around the main club crest.

"There were also inconsistencies with the versions of crests used, with different iterations around our own stadium and incorrect crests easily accessible online.

“The new crest features a redesigned lion, castle and canary, each of which have been redrawn to overcome the technical issues found. By simplifying the elements and removing a lot of the unnecessary detail, the crest now renders strongly in both small and large scale.

“The black keyline around the crest has also been removed, with the balance improved by positioning the ball in the centre of the crest.

"Whilst the crest is at the heart of the project, it will be supported by a bespoke club font and new brand property, both of which will be revealed in the summer of 2022.”

The Canaries have been using the same crest since 1972, after a competition run by the Eastern Evening News which was won by architect Andrew Anderson, combining the traditional Norwich coat of arms with the previous canary badge.

Many clubs have redesigned their crest since the turn of the century, including most top Premier League clubs and City's top-flight rivals including Leeds, Brentford, Burnley, Brighton, West Ham and Southampton.

The new crest is being projected onto the Castle Meadow side of Norwich Castle this evening, as part of the announcement.

The current crest will be retired after 50 seasons on Norwich shirts though, with City's commercial director, Sam Jeffrey, saying: “This is a huge moment in the history of Norwich City Football Club and a real statement of intent for the future.

“For the first time in 50 years the club will adopt a newly evolved crest, fit for digital purpose, iconic and most importantly accessible for all.

“It’s a project two years in the making and one that has been treated with the utmost sensitivity and care by those lucky enough to have been involved within the club’s working group.

“Having garnered feedback from numerous stakeholders, both internally and externally, it was always going to be an evolution and not a revolution. We’re extremely proud of the outcome.”

The Canaries have been working with branding agency SomeOne, which worked on similar projects with Manchester City, Tottenham and Wolves.

Executive creative director of SomeOne agency, Rich Rhodes, added: “When we started the project, we knew it was going to be something really interesting for us.

“Speaking to everyone from the owners and the board, players, fans and staff, we could tell that there’s something really special at Norwich; this real sense of community, pride and passion. It’s something that we really wanted to bring to the fore in the work that we’ve done.

“It’s really important to keep those historic, distinctive elements of the crest. It wasn’t a case of going in and making a fundamental change. It was about taking all of the best bits and making them even better and fit for purpose for a digital age.”

City have launched a website to explain the process in full, which can be viewed at norwichproject50.co.uk.

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